Wow. If time went fast while I was travelling, it has
positively flown by since I’ve been home. Somehow I have been back in the USA
for two weeks already and it has been a very dreamlike two weeks. I have been
visiting people and places that I missed while I was gone and it has been great
but has also been a bit weird for me. Travel -especially solo travel- makes
returning home a very weird experience. In the last ten months I have seen and
done so much. I have changed internally and externally in large and small ways.
In my personal life, everything seems drastically different. However, even in
ten months, not that much changes at home. People have the same jobs and
basically the same schedules and everything is almost just how I left it. It is
strange for me to feel so different but for nothing around me to reflect that
difference. I have been especially struck by just how easy everything is in the
US; In the countries I lived in, and especially in Tanzania, nothing is easy.
If you need to go somewhere you have to figure out whether you can walk there
or if not, what public transport to use. Then you have to deal with massive
amounts of people, animals, and food products all vying for space on said
transportation or the walking route. Then you have to figure out where to go to
get the item that you need; there are no Targets in the “developing” world and
so you have to go to a specific place to find what you're looking for, if you
need more than one thing, more often than not you will be going to more than
one place. When you find the item you need, you have to make sure the price is
fair and isn’t being raised because you're foreign (which it usually is) so
then you have to bargain in another language to get a reasonable price that is
still probably more expensive than a local would pay. Then when you want to go
home and relax, maybe take a shower or use the wifi, you have to hope that the
power and the water haven’t been shut off. To sum it up, life in these
countries isn’t a breeze; life in the USA is a breeze. If I need to buy
something here I can just get in my car, drive myself there on smooth paved
roads, and be in and out in less than ten minutes with the thing I needed and
ten other things that I didn’t need. This has been a bit hard for me to adjust
to and so I have been walking a lot of places in the last two weeks because
that feels more natural to me right now than just getting in my car. The other
day I walked five miles and took the bus for another two, it felt way more
normal than driving myself has felt so far. When I drive or when I walk,
another somewhat unnerving thing for me has been the lack of people out on the
streets. In all my other countries, the streets are always crowded with people
and animals and wheelbarrows etc. Here there are no people on the streets,
everyone is inside either a car or a building and it has been a little bit
weird for me to see everything so empty.
It is great to be home and back with people and in places I
know and love but it has definitely been a bit of an adjustment for me and will
probably continue to be. I hope to never take for granted the ease of life in
this country and I'm going to try to keep up the habit of walking places that
are only a two minute drive away. Now that I've talked about what being home is
like, let’s go back to the trip for a bit. Since I’ve been back, people have
wanted to know what place was my favorite or which I liked the most. First of
all, it is very hard to compare these three countries since they are all so
different from each other. I can only base my opinions on the experience that I
had in each country and that experience was based on the people I met, the
places I visited, and the work I was doing primarily. Overall I have to say
that Argentina was my best all-around experience. If you’ve been reading the
blog, you know that I had an amazing host situation in Argentina and I absolutely
loved my placement most of the time. I was able to really blend in and
integrate in Argentina and this made a tremendous positive impact, one that I didn’t
even really realize until I went to countries where this wasn’t the case. My
host mom invited me into her life wholeheartedly and so I had a family in
Argentina. I met Venetia two days into my trip and we became immediate close
friends. I was having a great time learning and working on my equine therapy
project and I was playing with kids and riding horses on a regular basis.
Argentina is a huge country but is relatively easy to travel around in. It has
amazingly nice people, incredibly delicious food, and so many amazing places to
visit and I was speaking Spanish all day every day. I have almost nothing
negative to say about my experience in Argentina and so that’s why I would say
it was overall the best experience.
That being said, Peru and Tanzania are both amazing
countries and I had very different but also positive experiences in each of
these countries. In Peru, I really learned how to be on my own. I spent a lot of
time by myself in Peru and while I did make some good friends, I don’t think
they will be as lasting as some of my Argentinian friendships. Peru was a very
emotionally taxing experience for me since it was the “Wednesday” of my trip
and came after such an amazing experience in Argentina. It is a beautiful
country and I saw and did so many awesome things while I was there. I trekked
the Inca trail to Machu Picchu with a group of awesome strangers who became friends
and hung out with monkeys in the Amazon jungle. I think Peru is where I really
learned the most about myself and learned how to be really happy doing things
on my own which is a very important thing. I did love my placement in Peru and
I would like to think that my presence in those kids’ lives made a positive
difference but it was so short that it’s hard to be sure.
Tanzania was such an amazing and different experience that
it is really hard to even compare it to my experience in South America. Life is
difficult in Tanzania and if I stood out as foreigner in Peru, it was nothing
compared to how much I stood out in Tanzania. However the people that I met in
Tanzania made the experience the incredibly positive and unique experience that
it was. First of all, having my best friend with me was awesome, I loved
sharing all the awesomeness with her! Second, I made some really good friends
with the other volunteers that I think will be lasting friendships which is
great. Third, the kids who lived on my street were just amazing and my experience
wouldn’t have been half as positive if I hadn’t had them to play with and say
hi to every single day. Fourth, and most important were the women at Positive
Love. These ladies became my African family in a way that is really
indescribable. They are my friends, my mamas, my students, my teachers and so
much more. The relationship that I was able to form with them was completely unique
and different to anywhere else. Positive Love was also the placement where I was
able to make the most impact. Not only did I form wonderful relationships with
the women, but I was able to leave the women with an entirely finished and
furnished shop where they can sell their products and make money to support themselves.
I met my Compassion children in Tanzania and I climbed Kilimanjaro with my
family there. It would dishonest to say that I loved every part of my time
there, but the things that I did love were just so important and strong that
Tanzania could also be called my favorite experience.
It’s hard to fit this trip and it’s components into boxes of
favorite and least favorite, most difficult and least difficult etc. The trip
was an amazing, somewhat indescribable (though I have tried my best) experience
and every part, good, bad, hard, and easy was integral in making it the incredible
experience that it was. I believe that I am a different person because of this trip
and I have learned so much, I hope that I can hold onto all that I've learned
and that I can carry it into the future with me whatever it holds. I also hope
that those of you that read this blog have gained something from doing so and
have enjoyed the experience with me. I've told you countless times how much the
support means to me but I really can’t say it enough, there were times when I really
may not have made it through if I didn’t know that I had the support system
that I do behind me. All I can say is THANK YOU. Times a million. Go out and
make the world a positive place. Don’t take your blessings for granted and try
to put yourselves in other people’s shoes as often as you can. Try to have
patience with the people in your everyday life and try to find the positive
spin on everything-there always is one it’s just sometimes harder to find. I
know that this is all somewhat cheesy and cliché advice but it’s true and I believe
it will make your life happier and will probably make the people around you a
bit happier as well. Thanks again for joining in on the ride; I've loved sharing
it with all of you.
LP
